The penultimate meeting of Central Park’s debut season saw the John Cearns Cup go to the Wimbledon Dons who ran out 37-50 winners over Kent CTA Fire Kings in their last team meeting this year.
Next week at the Kent circuit is the Individual Silver Ski Holiday’s Championship where all the Kings riders will contest the meeting bringing the curtain down on the season.
Stefan Nielsen was the first visiting rider to produce a five ride maximum, but not the first maximum which was Jason Garrity in the opening meeting against the American Internationals where he scored a four ride maximum. The 19 year old Fen Tiger passed Benji Compton in heat 5 and apart from that four perfect starts brought the spoils home for Nielsen. Premier league Rye House man Kasper Lykke was great value with solid back up 11+1 while Isle of Wight’s Brendan Johnson weighed in with an impressive 9 points.
The Kings troubles started early on with Adam Kirby losing control exiting the second bend in heat 2 while fellow reserve Jack Kingston had no chance of avoiding his fallen team mate, Kingston came off worse being forced to withdraw from the remainder of the meeting with a hand injury. With Boxall suffering mechanical problems, Benji Compton a suspected broken foot from a heat 14 fall prompted by Kelsey Dugard’s spectacular fourth bend tumble it was a final team night for the CTA Fire Kings to forget.
Seven points down after five races Boxall’s win over the fast starting Lykke in heat 6 started the Kent revival which saw them pull within a single point of the visitors after Connor Coles and the hard working Kirby returned the Kings only 5-1 of the night in heat 8. Lykke pass of Morley in the next race steadied any Wimbledon nerves following Williamson’s exclusion for twice jumping the start.
Johnson and Phillips rode Compton out of the start of heat 12 taking the Dons advantage back to eight points before the starting gate gave up the ghost forcing the riders for heat 13 to go from a green light start. The change certainly didn’t put the impressive Nielsen off his stride and when Boxall’s bike failed on the back straight Lykke adding insult to injury by roaring past Morley despite being left at the start for Wimbledon’s third maximum of the night. The result was academic after that with Nielsen and Lykke extending the winning margin to 13 points with a 4-2 in heat 15.
Adam Kirby steps up to replace Isle of Wight’s Brandon Freemantle who has failed a late fitness test for the British Under-19 Final at Coventry on Friday 20th September. The Kings youngster is joined by Ben Morley and Connor Coles while fellow reserve Jack Kingston is reserve for the meeting, all of them chasing the title that current champion last night’s maximum man Stefan Nielsen won last year.
Following on Saturday night is the National League Riders’ Championship at Hoddesdon home of Rye House Rockets where Ben Morley joins Steve Boxall for their assault on the National League’s top individual prize while Jack Kingston is named as meeting reserve.
Then after a tough couple of major individual meetings the season’s finale with the Silver Ski Holiday’s Championship individual at Central Park at 6.30pm featuring the Kings one to seven battling it out with Tyson Nelson and Kasper Lykke from Premier League Rye House, Luke Bowen returns from a long injury lay-off and Dudley Heathens number one Paul Starke and final confirmation of Chris Schramm from Premier League Newcastle.